Craig Newcomer's West Virginia trial delayed until August

A Berkeley County circuit judge agreed Monday to postpone the trial of a Waynesboro councilman and a Maryland man accused in a 2011 West Virginia bar fight that left a man brain damaged.

Craig Newcomer, 47, former Waynesboro council president who still represents the Third Ward, and Benjamin Jason Bean, 37, of Sharpsburg will now be tried jointly in connection to a Feb. 13, 2011, bar fight at the Dirty Dawg Saloon in Martinsburg on Aug. 14, 2012. The trial was originally scheduled to begin today.

Newcomer faces one count of malicious assault in the case, and Bean is accused of providing false information to law enforcement and conspiracy to commit malicious assault after a Virginia man, Ernest Cumbie, was seriously injured in a fight at the saloon.

Denise Bonura

A Berkeley County circuit judge agreed Monday to postpone the trial of a Waynesboro councilman and a Maryland man accused in a 2011 West Virginia bar fight that left a man brain damaged.

Craig Newcomer, 47, former Waynesboro council president who still represents the Third Ward, and Benjamin Jason Bean, 37, of Sharpsburg will now be tried jointly in connection to a Feb. 13, 2011, bar fight at the Dirty Dawg Saloon in Martinsburg on Aug. 14, 2012. The trial was originally scheduled to begin today.

Newcomer faces one count of malicious assault in the case, and Bean is accused of providing false information to law enforcement and conspiracy to commit malicious assault after a Virginia man, Ernest Cumbie, was seriously injured in a fight at the saloon.

Legal moves

Bean’s attorney, Thomas Stanley, filed the motion to continue the trial to give him more time to prepare his defense. Newcomer’s attorney, Daniel James of Keyser, W.Va., and Prosecuting Attorney Pamela Games-Neely did not oppose the motion. The court agreed to try the two men jointly during a November hearing where they both pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Last week, 23rd Judicial Circuit Judge Christopher Wilkes denied a motion to try the two cases separately. He said he found no significant evidence of prejudice to either defendant in trying them together. James filed a motion Monday for the judge to reconsider trying the cases separately.

“There are some evidentiary issues that really need to be addressed by the judge,” James said this morning.

He added it is not uncommon for cases that have the same facts and the same witnesses to be tried together for judicial efficiency.

Allegations

Newcomer was charged in May 2011 with malicious assault in the case. According to Martinsburg police, Newcomer was with a group of people in the Dirty Dawg when the fight broke out after 2 a.m. Police allege Newcomer was the only one who hit Cumbie, and Bean reportedly said Newcomer was “itching for a fight.” Bean was charged with conspiracy to commit malicious assault a few days later.

Cumbie fell off a bar stool and hit his head on the concrete floor, causing severe head injuries and some brain damage, according to court records. He was flown to a Virginia hospital where he reportedly remained for months after the fight.

James said Cumbie’s blood alcohol level three hours after the attack was 0.184 percent. The legal limit is 0.08 percent.

Newcomer and Bean travel with the Avengers Motorcycle Club, and Newcomer said he preaches to the group as part of his street ministry.

Self-defense

Newcomer, who is known as “Guido” by club members, maintains his innocence in the case.

“There are three different stories from witnesses describing the guy who hit Cumbie, and none of them fit me,” Newcomer said this morning. “It was brought out in court yesterday that one witness said someone with red hair and freckles hit him, another said a guy wearing a flipped up hat hit him and a third witness said a short, stocky man with blond hair hit him. I’m ready to go to trial and be acquitted.
It’s just something over my head. I know in the end I’m going to be acquitted.”

Newcomer said he did hit someone in the bar out of self-defense when the fight broke out. He said when the charges were first filed, “the other side said only one person was hit, but what they didn’t say was that two guys were knocked out and three were hit.”

“A guy hit me, I fell down and when I got back up he was coming after me, so I hit that guy out of self-defense,” he said.

Newcomer added when he received the case’s discovery from James and saw a picture of Cumbie, he told his attorney Cumbie was not the man he hit during the fight.

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